Draft:Oral traditions of the Soninke people

The oral traditions of the Soninke people encompass oral history, poetry, and folklore. The tradition is upheld by gesere, who today maintain an important role in Soninke society as literacy rates increase. The tradition of Wagadu (the native name for the Ghana Empire) is split into two parts, its foundation and its fall. The former is thought to contain content from prehistory due to multiple foundings of Wagadu, and they are thought to have been part of a much longer epic. The dispersal of the Soninke across West Africa after the collapse of the Ghana Empire has impacted their preservation and meant that traditions often have lots of different versions. The most famous Soninke oral story is Gassire's Lute.

History

Main article: History of the Soninke people

According to griots, the Soninke trace their ancestry to Igo Khassé Dingka (big old man). Once he arrived in the modern-day territory of Mali, Mauritania, and Senegal, he conquered the Karos, an agricultural people. At this point, he and his soldiers had spears, swords, shields, and iron armor and were equestrians. To establish the Kingdom of Wagadu, Dingka negotiated with the seven-headed snake Bida, who had ruled the area prior to his arrival. On the condition he submit the prettiest virgin to Bida every 7 years, he would receive gold and rain for agriculture. By the founding of the Ghana Empire, the Soninke were a sociopolitically and economically distinct ethnic group. By its collapse, which according to the oral history was caused by Bida's slaying, they were dispersed southwards throughout West Africa.

In 1930, Leo Frobenius initiated his 12-volume series Atlantis: Folk Tales and Poetry of Africa, in which he published African Genesis (1936). The book contains the stories The Recovery of Wagadu, The Killing of the Bida Dragon, A 1938 The Times review of the 1936 Faber & Faber edition states the work was for entertainment rather than rigorous anthropological study, mentioning Frobenius never clarified whether the accounts were oral telling or translated manuscripts. The reviewer also noted Gassire's Flute and Samba Gana "can rank among the great folk tales of the world".

In the 1930s, the Epic of Wagadu entered the European music scene via Wladimir Vogel's oratorio Wagadu Destroyed (1930), which is based on Frobenius's account. In 1935, it was translated into French by Hermann Scherchen and by May 1936 English by Nancy Bush. A performance conducted by Albert Coates and featuring soprano Laelia Finneberg, contralto Muriel Brunskill, baritone William Parsons, and chorus master Leslie Woodgate played on BBC Radio in May 1936. During the bombing of Berlin the original work was destroyed, but Vogel rewrote it using his notes, with it being revitalized in Lucerne, Switzerland on 4 September 1966 under Léonce Gras.

Today, griots maintain their importance despite increasing literacy rates.

Proverbs and riddles

Proverbs and riddles are an important part of the Soninke oral tradition. The Association SIL has published a series of PDF books documenting Soninke oral traditions, including a book of proverbs (in Soninke only) and riddles (in Soninke with French translations). Oudiary Makan Dantioko's Soninkan Burujunu masalanu do taalinu contains 200 proverbs in Soninke with French translations. (Datioko has published many studies of Soninke oral tradition.)

Songs

Songs also form part of the Soninke oral tradition. Moussa Diagana, a playwright and scholar born in 1946 in southern Mauritania, collected and studied the circumcision and marriage songs of the Soninke people in Kaédi, publishing the Soninke lyrics of the songs with French translations in Chants traditionnels du pays soninké. A reviewer praised the book for the fidelity of the French translations, concluding that "En sauvant de l'oubli un patrimoine menacé, il contribue à affirmer une identité culturelle pas toujours reconnue" ("By saving a threatened heritage from oblivion, it contributes to affirming a cultural identit not always recognized").

Narrative Traditions

Rediscovery of Wagadu

Main article: Wagadu (mythology)

Wagadu was lost for 7 years, but was found. However, she was then lost for 740 years. An old king named Mama Dinga stated she would return if war drum Tabele was beaten, but it had been tied to the sky by the Djinns (devils). Mama Dinga still had a childhood bondsman, who was treated poorly by Mama Dinga's 6 eldest sons but kindly by the youngest, Lagarre. Mama Dinga was, due to age, blind to their treatment of the bondsman and could only distinguish his eldest son by his arm hair, arm ring, and the smell of his gown. One evening, he felt he was dying so he sent the bondsman to get his eldest son, but when he entered the son's house to speak with him he was kicked as he commonly was. Consequently, the bondsman sought Lagarre and asked if he could borrow the articles his father identified his eldest by. Lagarre then killed a goat to bear its rough and hairy hide on his arm, and borrowed his brother's gown and arm ring. Deceived, Mama Dinga spoke:

On the left bank of the stream stand four great Djalla trees. At the foot of these four trees lie nine jars. If you wash yourself in these nine jars and roll yourself in the dirt of the river bank you will always have plenty of followers. Wash yourself first in the first eight jars. And then in the ninth. Let the ninth go at first. But when you have washed yourself finally in this ninth jar, then you will be able to understand the language of the Djinns. Then you will know the language of all animals and also of the birds and will be able to speak with them. And then you can speak with the Djinns and ask them where the great Tabele, the great war drum is. The oldest Djinn will tell you, and when you have the great Tabele, then you will be able to find Wagadu again.

Lagarre left with soldiers and upon finding the jars followed his father's instructions. Meanwhile, at home the bondsman was compelled to admit his actions when the eldest son spoke with his father, explaining the sons' cruelty would lead him to destroy Wagadu and that he was ready for execution. Instead, the eldest son was told he would not be king soon and he rather should become a rainmaker so he would still have influence. Lagarre was pointed by the eldest Djinn to a forest containing Kuto, a being 7 years older than the Djinn. Kuto asked which people Lagarre belonged to, to which he replied he was the son of Dinga, and if he knew his paternal grandfather's name, which he did not, but Kuto revealed he did not know Dinga but rather it rather Kiridjo, Dinga's father. Kuto then directed Lagarre to Thurume, a jackal 17 years older than Kuto. Thurume revealed Lagarre's great-grandfather to be Kiridjotamani and directed him to Koliko, a buzzard 27 years older than Thurume. Koliko knew Kiridjotamani and the Tabele's location, but was too weak to fly from his branch. Accordingly, he had Lagarre slay a horse and donkey every morning for 7 days and feed him their hearts and livers in the night. After the 7 days the buzzard flew, but was too weak to break the thongs used to tie the Tabele. He demanded 3 more days of the routine, at the end of which he brought the Tabele. Per Koliko's instructions, Lagarre did not touch the Tabele for 2 days, but on the third beat it. That moment, he saw Wagadu reappear.

The Fight with the Bida Dragon

Koliko also told Lagarre that he would be confronted by the seven-headed snake Bida. Lagarre's grandfather, Wagana Sako, sacrificed ten maidens every year to him, but Koliko instructed Lagarre to refuse to do the same and instead bargain down to one. Bida was satisfied and expressed he would allow golden rain to fall over Wagadu three times a year.

Before, the four respected men of Wagadu were Wagana Sako, Dajabe Sise, Damangile (founder of the Djaora house from which the Soninke are descended), and Mamadi Sefe Dekote ("Sefe Dekote" means "he speaks seldom"). A jealous man, Sako had a doorless wall surround his court, which could only be entered by jumping the wall with the stallion Samba Ngarranja. He was fiercely guarded, as was his wife, by Sako, fearing his offspring would also be capable of jumping so high. Sako's uncle, Mamadi Sefe Dekote stole the stallion one night and bred a newly-bought mare. By age 3, the stallion could jump the wall. When Wagadu was at war and Sako away from home, Mamadi jumped the wall to speak and lay with Sako's wife. The same night, Sako returned to visit his wife. Noticing another stallion tied in the stables, Stako was apprehensive and eavesdropped on his wife and Mamadi's conversation. When a cat chasing a mouse frightened the couple, Mamadi admitted he was afraid of Sako. Consequently, Sako left for the frontlines. Mamadi left later and joined him by morning. Sako did not know the man was Mamadi, whom was unaware of Sako's eavesdropping, yet that evening they both played a lute and sang. First Sako, "Last night I heard a word and had I not heard it Wagadu would have been destroyed," and then Mamadi, "Had anyone heard what was said last night Wagadu would have been destroyed. But no one heard." After the people of Wagadu sang, "Let us return to Wagadu. For if, at the beginning of a campaign, people begin to quarrel then the matter can come to no good end," they returned home.

The people of Wagadu dictated the next firstborn, who was Sia Jatta Bari, would be sacrificed to Bida. Known for her beauty across Soninke society, Mamadi became her lover. However, one night she revealed to him the plans for her sacrifice. The next morning, Mamadi sharpened his sword and accompanied the procession to Bida's well next to the town. It was customary for Bida to show his head three times before eating the sacrifice, so as the people of Wagadu chanted Mamadi decapitated Bida on the third showing. The head then cursed Wagadu to never experience golden rain for the next 7 years, months, and days. Mamadi took Sia on his horse, heading to his mother's house in Sama-Markala, a town on the Niger River north of Segu; while the people closed in. The only horse that could catch Mamadi's was Samba Ngarranja. Accordingly, the people demanded Sako pursue Mamadi. Upon closing the gap, Sako threw his spear into the ground and explained he would not kill Mamadi since he was his uncle and that he should flee to his mother's. When the people caught up to Sako he claimed he missed and required their help to pull his spear from the ground. He repeated the charade twice. The fourth confrontation was outside Mamadi's mother's house. After Mamadi explained the situation, he was left there.

In Wagadu, Mamadi gave Sia mutukalle tamu in gold, but in Sama there was no gold-producing snake. As such, Sia had Mamadi cut off his little toe and finger for a purported headache. Afterward, she had a message delivered telling him she could not love someone with any less than ten toes and ten fingers. Mamadi fell into a rage so powerful he became deathly ill. He contracted a an elderly woman to create a karté (tree butter) cake through Borri to smear on Sia's forehead. He then had the hairdresser Kumbadamba spread the karté on Sia's forehead. Thrice she went to Mamadi believing he called her and on the third time he told her to meet him at night. That night, Mamadi instead had his slave Blali sleep with her. In the morning, she was trembling having realized what transpired and that night went to her house and died from shame.

Gassire's Lute

Main article: Gassire's Lute

Wagadu, "[who] is the strength which lives in the hearts of men", changed her names four times: Dierra, Agada, Ganna, and Silla. Four times she stood in splendor and four times she disappeared, chronologically through vanity, falsehood, greed, and dissension. She was only ever seen from her gateways of the four cardinal directions. Every reappearance she grew more beautiful and Wagadu positively changed. The first time, bards' music was granted, which the people of the Sudan continue. Second was rain of gold and pearls. Third was writing as the Burdama practice. Fourth will make Wagadu enduring, with every man having her in his heart and woman her womb.

Samba Gana

The beautiful and wise Annalja Tu Bari, the daughter of a prince who lived near Wagana, was highly sought as a bride; however, her demands were too high for every suitor. Once her father died of a bruised ego after losing a nearby village to another ruler, she inherited the town she lived in from him. Consequently, her demand for her hand in marriage was the reconquest of the village and 80 others. Years passed without a suitor and although she grew prettier, Annalja also grew melancholy each year; her knights, smiths, bards, and bondsmen could no longer laugh. In Faraka, the happy Samba Gana, son of Gana, defeated every prince in his region while accompanied by two bards, two servants, and his tutor Tararafe. He did not keep the towns of the defeated princes and after he heard of Annalja from Tararafe's singing while camped on the Niger River, he traveled days to meet her.

Once pointed to the 80 towns, he left Tararafe with Annalja to make her laugh and went on to conquer each, sending the princes to inform Annalja of her ownership. Although when he returned she accepted him, he refused to marry until she laughed. Accordingly, Annalja directed him to the Issa Beer serpent, which Tararafe sang of, for it caused hunger, which prevented her laughter. He traveled through Koriume and Bamba before finding the serpent. He subsequently battled it for 8 years, breaking 800 lances and 80 swords while the Niger shifted and mountains gave way to chasms. Left with a blood-stained sword and lance, he gave the latter to Tararafe to "see if she laughs now". When Tararafe returned with her demand that he bring the serpent to her as a slave to "lead the river into my country", he declared "she asks too much" and impaled his breast with the sword. Tararafe drew and presented it to Annalja, stating it had combatants' blood and that Gana had his last laugh.

Summoning all princes and knights in her town, she rode to Gana's corpse. There she promulgated: "This hero was greater than all before him. Build him a tomb to tower over that of every hero and of every king." 8 times 800 people built his "tumulus-like pyramid" tomb outfitted with underground burial and ground-level sacrificial chambers. For 8 years Gana was commemorated everyday in song until his tomb reached high enough to see Wagana. One sunrise, Tararafe told Annalja he could see Wagana. She concurred and exclaimed the tomb was "as great as his name deserves". She laughed twice before sending the knights and 8 times 800 princes out to "become heroes like Samna Gana". After laughing once more, she died and was buried with Gana.

The Messenger to Maftam

An old man named Mamedi, who had a reputation for never lying, lived in Ogo. One day, Soninke chief Bahene had a discussion about him, which concluded with Bahene irritated that the man was an exaggeration and demanded Mamedi be brought to him. After Mamedi affirmed regardless of the circumstances he cannot lie, Bahene declared he would have Mamedi beaten if he was ever caught lying, expressing afterward to his councilors that Mamedi was arrogant and needed a lesson. Several days later, Bahene sent for Mamedi in the morning, asking him to tell his wife in Maftam that he and his hunting party would be there at noon and to prepare a large dinner. Pretending to begin while Mamedi ran away, Bahene and his party returned to his house and he revealed it was a rouse to make Mamedi lie and that they would beat him in the next morning. Once Mamedi arrived, he told Bahene's wife "It is likely, rather, or so it seemed, perhaps, possibly, or, on the other hand more or less certainly, probably less than more, or more than less, that Bahene went hunting." Having answered her subsequent questions the same way, she ended the conversation in frustration and Mamedi spent the night. The next morning, after Bahene's wife told him what occurred, he affirmed Mamedi could not lie, to which Mamedi agreed in the same manner he spoke to Bahene's wife.

Tales

Animal tales

The foolish hyena and the trickster hare are central characters in the Soninke animal tale tradition. The Association SIL's series of PDF books documenting Soninke oral traditions includes a book of Soninke tales with French translations: Dangamaanu: Les contes soninké, which features 10 animal tales, most of them about the hare and/or the hyena.. Stories about the hyena and the hare can also be found in F. Daniel's 10 Soninke tales (French translation only), including a version of the "lion's share" with the hyena and the hare as the lion's hunting companions, along with the famous folktale of the tug-of-war between the hippopotamus and the elephant instigated by the trickster hare. Charles Monteil's Soudan français. Contes soudanais contains a French translation of a Soninke hyena story: "Le Lion, La Panthère et L'Hyène." For a study of the significance of tales about the hyena for Soninke society, see Fadiga Samba's Littérature orale soninke: le conte.

Tales of people

Most of the Soninke tales in Monteil's Soudan français. Contes soudanais are stories about people. The 8 stories appear in French translation; one of those stories, "Samba le Lache," can be found in English in Andrew Lang's Olive Fairy Book as "Samba the Coward."

Sources

Bibliography

• Bathily, Abdoulaya (1975). "Discussion of the Traditions of Wagadu with Some Reference to Ancient Ghana". Bulletin de l'Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire. 37 (1): 1–49. ISSN 0018-9642.
• Belcher, Stephen (22 October 1999). Epic Traditions of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-21281-8.
• Conrad, David C.; Fisher, Humphrey J. (1983). "The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids, 1076. II. The Local Oral Sources". History in Africa. 10. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 53–78. doi:10.2307/3171690. ISSN 1558-2744. JSTOR 3171690. S2CID 162867483.
• Courlander, Harold (1975). A Treasury of African Folklore: The Oral Literature, Traditions, Myths, Legends, Epics, Tales, Recollections, Wisdom, Sayings and Humor of Africa (1 ed.). New York City: Crown Publishers. ISBN 9780517516706. OCLC 1204348. Oral traditions of the Soninke people at the Internet Archive.
• Frobenius, Leo; Fox, Douglas C. (1937). African Genesis: Folk Tales and Myths of Africa. New York City: Stackpole Sons. OCLC 41531781.
• Jablow, Alta (1984). "Gassire's Lute: A Reconstruction of Soninke Bardic Art". Research in African Literatures. 15 (4). Indianapolis: Indiana University Press: 519–529. ISSN 0034-5210. JSTOR 3819348. S2CID 162759007.
• Johnson, John William; Hale, Thomas A.; Belcher, Stephen, eds. (1 March 1997). Oral Epics from Africa: Vibrant Voices from a Vast Continent. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-025-333257-8.
• Scheub, Harold (2000). A Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512456-1.